Móeiður Júníusdóttir is an Icelandic singer and musician with an impressive cataloge spanning jazz, electronica, dance and pop. Móeiður, a classically trained vocalist, began her career in jazz clubs in Reykjavík before transitioning into electronic music with the band Bong in the 1990s. Later, she pursued a solo career, releasing music that blended jazz influences with electronic sounds. Her career took off when she gained recognition for her hauntingly beautiful interpretations of traditional Icelandic folk music, which she fused with modern elements. Her career included international success, collaborations, and even a tour with Moby. After stepping away from the industry for some time, she made a return to music in recent years, including participating in the Icelandic Eurovision semi-finals in 2023, although as she explains to Andrew Threlfall, that was mostly for her children!
First Musical Steps
AT: You’ve spent a life-time in music. How did this journey begin?
MJ: One of the clearest memories from my childhood is when my family got a piano. It was an old piano with cigarette stains originally from the jazz club at the American army base in Keflavík. I immediately started exploring it and writing songs. I took piano lessons and I connected to the world through music.
Finding A Voice
AT: When did you start singing?
MJ: I always knew I could sing because there are a lot of singers in my family. I just didn‘t have the urge to do it until I listened to jazz singers like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald as a teenager. I don‘t believe in the concept of competing in music but I still ended up representing my high school in a national singing contest live on TV. It was before the Internet and social media, so being on TV was quite big back then.
Love At First Stage
AT: It sounds like you were born to perform. Was there ever any hesitation?
MJ: I loved being on stage and started performing with various jazz musicians in Reykjavík‘s clubs and in cabaret shows. My first album was a standard jazz album released on Bad Taste Records (established by Bjork’s old band, The Sugarcubes).
Bong!
AT: In 1994 you released the album Bong. The sound was quite a departure from the jazz, what brought on this change?
MJ: I wanted to try new things in music and electronica was the musical direction I was drawn to. I had a big circle of artistic friends and we all went to the same rave clubs, like Damon Alban’s Kaffibarinn, to dance and soak up new music from the dJs. In this environment the pop-electronic band Bong was formed. It was a duo of me and my now ex-husband Eyþór Arnalds (who was also with Björk in the band Tappi Tíkarrass).
Bong became quite successful and released an album in 1994 with English lyrics. We got criticised here for using English, but we wanted to be international, and using English was an important part of doing that. Iceland felt quite isolated back then. Our Icelandic record company, cuisine, believed in us and we ended up being signed by England‘s Mega Records. The single “Devotion“ was a semi–house club hit, and I did a promo tour around clubs in England and Scotland.
A Solo Mix-up
AT: After the success with Bong you continued to move forward with new sounds.
MJ: I felt strongly that I should continue my musical career as a solo artist. At that time, I worked with the influential British photographer Rankin on images, and I had already started working on new music with producers in Iceland and London. The result was my album “Universal“, a musical combination of my jazzy roots and electronica, released on the American hip-hop and electronic label Tommy Boy in America and Europe.
Leaving The Dream
AT: You seemed to be everywhere and then no where. What made you pull back from the spotlight?
MJ: My band toured with Moby, and I was part of a Calvin Klein campaign along with musicians like Shirley Manson and my video was on MTV. It was like a dream, and I felt like I had reached my goals. But I had difficulties with writing new music in this environment, the connectedness had gone and I felt a bit overwhelmed by the business side of the music industry. So basically around the year 2000, just before the Internet changed the world, I decided to quit music. And I stayed out of it for a very long time.
AT: From a life so full of music, how did you find fulfillment in a quieter life?
MJ: I studied theology and became a mother and a teacher. I guess I found connectedness in other places. We Icelandic women do that.
In recent years I’ve started enjoying making music and singing again but on my own terms and in a different world of the internet and social media. My kids had never seen me performing on stage, so I participated in the Iceland Eurovision semi-finals in 2023.
It’s important never to stop challenging yourself!
Main Image
Photographer: Asta Kristjans / www.astakristjans.com
Make-up & Hair : Isak Freyr
Read more about out Icelandic tour. We met the The Queen of Iceland Cuisine, Hrefna Sætranin. Find out how her restaurant, Fiskmarkaðurinn has helped define modern Icelandic cuisine here
